One very poignant story is that of a small college library being destroyed. As the creator of the library, the professor says profoundly, "They used to burn books -- now they deaccession them."

One library expert talks about the leaders of the Canadian library association as being ‘entrepreneur types.’ ( I myself was told my first day in library school
that we new library students would probably have to invent our own jobs since there were none -- this was in 1978 Minneapolis.)

I certainly wish that the film was much longer. I enjoyed the library history, but it was not really needed. Samuel has told me that he is planning on making a
second part of the film, and that he may include interviews with people like Sandy Berman, who certainly has written and taped some even more powerful criticisms of the current "library in crisis." I also told Samuel about Nick Baker's landmark Double Fold.

There are about ten different library experts who do briefly talk about threats including the WTO -- which is seldom mentioned in American library circles. Another expert points out that in 1976 the Copyright Law was expanded to include software, thereby creating Bill Gates mammoth fortune. Lots of nice libraries including Vancouver's new library are shown; current optical printing techniques are used to create nice floating images. Sally Mason at the National Video Resources project in NYC is compiling a list of contemporary films about libraries. This one should certainly be at the top of the list. I myself would like to see a four-part, four-hour PBS series hosted by Berman, with an hour spent on at least four areas: privatizing libraries and the WTO; the librarian profession; qualifications, pay scale, etc; Post 9/11 Threats to Libraries including Berman's concept of ‘inside censorship,’ and how to limit computerism.

Until this fantasy series is created, all librarians, library board members, and all library users should watch this film and discuss it. Also, librarians should acquire Altera Vistas two one-hour programs with Berman on some of these same issues.

This history of libraries is also a history of bibliocides. The destruction of libraries such as Alexandria's, The Library in Crisis argues, anticipate the contemporary privatization of information; each case represents the need of the powerful to control access to knowledge. In Samuel's modest formal interventions, "attention is constantly drawn to the contrast between fragments of digitized information with their immediacy, and the organization of texts, which necessarily require more time and patience." (Vinita Ramani) The excerpt foregrounds the lively, ecumenical, and intercultural libraries in India in the 5th century.

Julian Samuel was born in Lahore, Pakistan 1952, lived in the UK as a child, and moved to Canada in 1966. He has since resided in Montreal, where he gained an MFA degree from Concordia University. Samuel has made numerous documentaries on colonial histories that extend into the present, including The Raft of the Medusa: five voices on colonies, nations & histories (1993), Into The European Mirror (1995), City of the Dead and The World Exhibitions (1999) and Fatwa 447 (1999). He is also the author of the novel Passage to Lahore.